Nourishing Mind, Body & Soul

Transcription

1 2700 N. Military Trail, Suite 240 PO Box Boca Raton, Florida Nourishing Mind, Body & Soul Brother Beausang Catholic School Embul-bul, Kenya PROJECT 0122 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Proverbs 2:10

2 Project Synopsis Description Provide an excellent Catholic education for 865 students from an impoverished slum area, giving them the keys to unlock poverty s bonds. Purpose Congregation of Christian Brothers Location Embul-bul, on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya s capital city Cost $59,400 helps provide education, meals and spiritual formation to 800 students for one year. That totals about $74.25 per student per year. Highlights Families who live in Embulbul s slum areas are very, very poor. Brother Beausang Catholic School started as a feeding program for children running the streets of Embul-bul. Today the property includes a school offering preschool through high school classes. Cross Catholic Outreach helped construct a building in 2007 to house the school s burgeoning enrollment. Students are served a nutritious daily meal, which for many is the only meal of the day. They also receive spiritual formation, which gives them a solid moral foundation along with the desire to help the poor and needy. Parents provide a token tuition payment, which is still a financial stretch, but demonstrates their commitment to their children s education. Cross Catholic Outreach is committed to seeing the school continue operation, and we re asking your help to meet that commitment. The Congregation of Christian Brothers was founded by Edmund Ignatius Rice ( ), a wealthy Irish merchant who, after a family tragedy, sold his business and devoted his wealth and his life to educating poor children. Blessed Edmund Rice was beatified in

3 The Need: Escape from Poverty It s Monday morning. Sixteen-year-old Levis Mutua drags his weak body out of bed. His head is pounding from dehydration as he puts on his school uniform and heads out the door. The school is only a short distance away, but every step he takes along the garbage-strewn dirt road feels like he s trudging a mile. Along the way, he passes rows of makeshift shanties like the one he shares with his mother and three brothers. Sometimes our house is locked by the landlady, and we must look for some other place to sleep, he later tells us. Faint from hunger and thirst, the Monday journey to school is particularly challenging yet Levis wouldn t miss a day at Brother Beausang Catholic School for anything. The only time I eat is when they serve us lunch here, says Levis, who looks like a 10-year-old, no doubt due to malnutrition. Sometimes, especially Saturdays and Sundays, we don t eat. Then I mostly just sleep because I m too weak to go out. The daily meal isn t the only reason Levis goes to school. I want to study, get a good grade, and help my mother, he says, referring to his dream of escaping Just as Levis crisp white uniform shirt stands in contrast to the dirty Embul-bul alleyway, so his future with education shines in stark contrast to his future without Brother Beausang Catholic School. generations of dire poverty. I want to change their lives. Levis mother, Mary Magdelene Carmen, tries to make the most of the hand she s been dealt. Her husband ran off and her brother sold their family property. I have no steady income, I have no land to depend on, I have no farm to work. I have here only, she tells us as she prepares to sell mangoes in the market. Mary Magdelene s faith in Christ deflects the hopelessness that pervades the depressed shantytown of Embul-bul. I tell the women here that no situation is without options, and God is in it all. You just have to keep praying and keep giving thanks to God, regardless. My children are most important, Mary says. God may not have given me food to feed them, but he did give me children, and the gift of children is a blessing from God. Having only attended school up to grade four, Mary Magdelene Carmen does not want her children to struggle the way she has due to the lack of education. She desperately desires that Levis have a better future a future made possible through an education at Brother Beausang Catholic School. 2

4 The Ministry: Brother Beausang Catholic School In 2000, the Christian Brothers started a feeding program in a one-room community center for the many hungry children who ran the streets of Embul-bul. They began teaching the children who came, and Brother Beausang Catholic School was born. The school s attendance soon grew to fill a handful of small sheet-metal classrooms; then in 2007, Cross Catholic Outreach helped the brothers build a new facility. Today the school serves 865 students from preschool through high school. Public schools in Kenya are few and far between, and the ones that do exist are woefully overcrowded. If it weren t for Brother Beausang, children such as Levis would likely grow up uneducated, hungry and hopeless. Thankfully, the poor children of Embul-bul can have hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11) through an excellent, Christ-centered education. At Brother Beausang Catholic School, parents pay a token amount toward tuition (though exceptions are made for a few extreme situations each year). Tuition fees meet only 18 percent of the school s operating costs, but the sacrifice makes parents emotionally vested in their children s education, which has a positive impact on parent involvement and ultimately on student grades. In addition to an excellent Catholic education, students receive: Daily meals As with Levis, for many students, the nutritious school lunch is the only meal of the day. The school also provides clean drinking water, which is not always readily available in Embul-bul. Extracurricular activities Students are encouraged to participate in clubs such as Young Christian Students, Peace and Justice, or Environment clubs, as well as in sports, art, drama or music. These opportunities help students develop leadership skills. Spiritual formation Students engage in daily classroom prayer and Religious Education classes. On Wednesdays the entire school celebrates Mass, and the door is open to the community. Students take part, serving as readers, dancers, or ushers, or by singing in the choir. Levis, who is an altar server and choir member, says, My favorite subject is Religious Education because I like reading the Bible. My favorite passage is Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd, you shall not be afraid because I need not fear anybody, but only God, who is Creator of my soul. I would like to become a priest. I see myself serving the poor and the needy. 3

5 Help Now! For hundreds of young people like Levis, Brother Beausang Catholic School is a lifeline. Its daily meal, spiritual formation and academic education provide a holistic approach to alleviating poverty in Embul-bul starting with the children. With an education earned at Brother Beausang Catholic School, children can be equipped to pursue opportunities for employment that will improve their lives and break the cycle of poverty for the next generation. And the strong spiritual foundation can instill in them the desire to help the needy just as they themselves have been helped. The cycle of poverty can become a cycle of love. This achievement, however, depends on the generosity of Catholics around the world, especially in America, to keep the school running. Please pray for Levis and the other impoverished children living in Embul-bul, Kenya. And prayerfully consider giving toward Brother Beausang Catholic School, so it may continue to transform the community, one child, one family at a time. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Luke 6:38 Our Promise to You! Proceeds from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures for this project incurred during the current calendar year. In the event that more funds are raised than needed to fully fund the project, the excess funds, if any, will be used to meet the most urgent needs of the ministry. 4 [Ura1503] [nb1411] 2700 N. Military Trail, Suite 240 PO Box Boca Raton, Florida Copyright Cross Catholic Outreach. Cost-effectively written, designed and printed in-house.